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Overview

In their heyday on the vaudeville stages of the early twentieth century, Dora Chance and her twin sister, Noraunacknowledged daughters of Sir Melchior Hazard, the greatest Shakespearean actor of his daywere known as the Lucky Chances, with private lives as colorful and erratic as their careers. But now, at age 75, Dora is typing up their life story, and it is a tale indeed that Angela Carter tells. A writer known for the richness of her imagination and wit as well as her feminist insights into matters large and small, she created in Wise Children an effervescent family saga that manages to celebrate the lore and magic of show business while also exploring the connections between parent and child, the transitory and the immortal, authenticity and falsehood.

About the Author

Angela Carter (1940-1992) was the author of many novels (including Nights at the Circus)¸ collections of short stories, plays, and books for children.

Editorial Reviews

“Dazzling . . . The culmination of Angela Carter's prolific and inventive career.” Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

“Wise Children inhabits its own manic universe and would probably translate into a spirited, bawdy musical comedy-farce of the kind which the Chance sisters themselves performed, long ago.” Joyce Carol Oates, The New York Times Book Review

“Wise Children is vintage Carter.” The Village Voice

From the Publisher

Carter, a splendid British writer (The Magic Toyshop; Nights at the Circus) all too little known here, has a real winner in this giddy tale of a highly eccentric British theatrical family. Nora and Dora Chance are twin sisters, former vaudeville dancers not beyond some high-stepping sex even at age 75, living in a once rundown but newly smart area of South London. Dora tells their tale, and her narrative voice is a triumph: deeply feminine, ribald, self-deprecating (on their birth: "We came bursting out on a Monday morning, on a day of sunshine and high wind when the Zeppelins were falling''). Their mother, seduced by the legendary actor Sir Melchior Hazard, dies giving birth; the girls are brought up by the landlady, and eventually come to nurture one of Melchior's several cast-off wives. Meanwhile, his brother Peregrine, who once set off to wander the world. . . . The extravagant family comes together for a lavish 100th birthday party for British institution Sir Melchior, at which skeletons galore clatter out in full view of a national TV audience. The party is one magnificently unforgettable set-piece. The other is the filming, in Hollywood in the late '30s, of a terrible version of A Midsummer Night's Dream, by a culture-mad producer--one of the funniest and most deadly portraits of moviedom ever penned. But the whole book is comic writing of the highest order: spry, witty, earthy and oddly touching at times. It was a large success in Britain, and deserves to do as well here. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Historical events and personages viewed as in a distorting mirror, and beasts of prey endangered by encounters with their chosen quarry, are representative of the charmingly deranged fiction of the late Carter (194093).

Carter's impertinent revisions of cherished conventions and beloved traditional stories do not elicit mild or neutral reactions from readers. As her friend Salman Rushdie suggests in his warm introduction to this rich collection of 42 stories (spanning the years 196293), one is either pleasurably seduced by her languorous imagery and overripe vocabulary, or made slightly ill by her intemperate romantic sensuality: you love her or you hate her. Even those attuned to Carter's perfervid imagination will have to pick and choose their way through a minefield of knotty prose and naughtier conceits, from several decidedly precious early tales through the contents of her acclaimed story volumes (such as The Bloody Chamber and Saints and Strangers) to a final three uncollected pieces that are even more hothouse-baroque than her usual work. If you can bypass the gamy contes cruels that show Carter at her worst, there's much to enjoy in her wry feminist response to the smug mandates of sexism, racism . . . come to think of it, most -isms. "The Bloody Chamber" amusingly reinvents the Bluebeard legend, featuring a virginal bride reluctant to become yet another passive victim; "The Fall River Axe Murders" examines Lizzie Borden from a sardonic female perspective; "Overture and Incidental Music for A Midsummer Night's Dream" retells Shakespeare's comedy from the viewpoint of the changeling child for whom fairy rulers Oberon and Titania contend. And in the amazing "Our Lady of the Massacre," Carter employs the familiar narrative of (American) Indian captivity to create in a mere 14 pages a brilliantly compact near-novella.

A book of wonders, then, even if too cloying for some tastesand a welcome occasion for reassessing the work of one of the most unusual writers of recent emergence.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

I had to read this for AS Level English Lit and hated almost all of it. I couldn't get on with the style of writing and I felt at times it was being too obviously outrageous or weird without really saying anything important. However it did have some funny moments and the characters were nicely formed.

limoncello on LibraryThing

3 months ago

Angela Carter is one of my favourite authors. I love her fantasies, the twists and turns in her stories and her wonderful sense of humour. I love her use of metaphor and the universality of her themes. So of course I loved this book.

thelotustree on LibraryThing

3 months ago

A book for lovers of Shakespeare who enjoy seeing the bard being taken on a roller coaster romp that rewrites expectations!The book plays on the common "green space" trope used by Shakespeare (we start in the normal world, enter the forest (green space) and everything goes topsy turvy, only to be restored in the end when the characters emerge from the forest and re-enter society) but completely inverts it and embraces the chaos of the carnavalesque. We start with chaos, enter a more sedate time in Hollywood, and then emerge once again into the topsy turvy. Angela Carter's subversion of expectation and not so gentle prodding at the world of so called high art, is a masterpiece and must read for anyone who enjoys a humouristic romp through literary history!One of my all time favourites.

MoochPurpura on LibraryThing

3 months ago

I agree that this is a book that enchants! I was delighted when it came out. I still remember the etymology of hazard and chance, the maniacal host with the catchphrase >, and the winter party scene.

thioviolight on LibraryThing

3 months ago

I loved this book right from the beginning! The last Angela Carter book I read before this was "The Passion of New Eve," which wasn't as easy to get into for me, and the wonderfully different, witty tone of "Wise Children" was a total delight. The novel is filled with fascinating characters and intrigues, and I was entertained right to the very end -- in fact, I was sad to reach the end of Dora's tale and say goodbye to the Chance twins. One of my favorite reads this year!

LizzieG on LibraryThing

3 months ago

Wise Children was written by Angela Carter in 1991, the last of her nine novels, published before her death in 1992. The story is a complex tale ¿ set on the day of identical twins Dora (the narrator) and Nora Chance¿s 75th birthday, it is a memoir of their personal lives as illegitimate twin daughters of Sir Melchior Hazard, a British theatrical legend, and their professional lives as vaudeville `hoofers¿ ¿ the Lucky Chances. All of the vignettes recollected by Dora lead towards the dénouement set at their father¿s centennial party.Central to the theme of the book ¿ emphasised by the choice of quotations used at the outset of the novel ¿ is the relationship between mothers and daughters ("Father is a hypothesis but mother is a fact"), and there is a very matriarchal slant to the story. This is very in keeping with Carter¿s other works, which emphasise the power held by women in determining their own destinies.At times the thread of the narrative is difficult to follow ¿ the timeline jumps around incessantly and there is (fittingly for a novel about theatric types) a large cast of supporting characters ¿ but Carter¿s clever use of language to describe situations and events and her talent in bringing the principals to life make this a joy to read. Wise Children requires one to suspend belief at times due to its use of magical realism, but if you can get to grips with the multiple pairs of twins, the numerous illegitimacies and the constant Shakespearian motif, then the highs and lows in the book will really tug at your heart strings. There¿s also plenty of bawdy humour to keep the pace up.

larpiainen on LibraryThing

5 months ago

Talk about colorful language! Even a bit challenging for a non-native English speaker, but worth every trip to the dictionary...great story.

Anonymous

More than 1 year ago

What I had the biggest problem with was the author's tone throughout the book -- the irony and sarcasm, although often funny, became truly tiresome.

Guest

More than 1 year ago

Excellent for any Carter fan. A laugh riot, not unlike Nights at the Circus. I've already read it twice. Definitely fun for the openminded.

Anonymous

More than 1 year ago

Guest

More than 1 year ago

I'd shied away from Carter before as I'd heard she was complicated and difficult...but if this book is any indication, that's nonsense. This is a wonderful book! There's a proper story with a beginning, a middle and an end (to quote my mum), fantastic characters (especially the main two, Nora and Dora, their mad old naturist guardian and doting uncle) and a lightness of touch that is simply delightful. I laughed loud at times, and at others was genuinely moved by the girls' resillience. This book was the product of a fine imagination and will, hopefully, fire many more. Read this book and let your faith in literature be restored.

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